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LE

I used to use a 20" telescope, but now I have to make do with a pair of cheap binoculars, a 70 mm spotter, an 80 mm with solar filter and a 90 mm - all let down by shaky mounts and lots of light pollution.

Mark The Convict

Guest

I used to use a 20" telescope, but now I have to make do with a pair of cheap binoculars, a 70 mm spotter, an 80 mm with solar filter and a 90 mm - all let down by shaky mounts and lots of light pollution.

LE

I used to use a 20" telescope, but now I have to make do with a pair of cheap binoculars, a 70 mm spotter, an 80 mm with solar filter and a 90 mm - all let down by shaky mounts and lots of light pollution.

I've just acquired a second-hand Celestron XLT-102 (102 mm objective, f9.8 refractor on a CG-4 equatorial mount) for about 1/3 of the going rate for a new one. Although the sky earlier this evening was largely overcast by thin, high cloud, there were a few relatively clear patches; in particular, looking low in the south, Saturn was visible to the east of Spica and was a natural for comparing the new scope to the smaller ones (and a 114 mm reflector I forgot to mention, but excluding the bins (broken) and the 70 mm (down at the caravan)). After roughly aligning the mount on Polaris, I put the 25 mm eyepiece in the 102 and was rewarded with a (surprisingly) sharp image of Saturn, the rings nicely showing and what I think was Titan off to one side. Swapping to a 6 mm eyepiece gave a very nice view indeed. The mount was very stable and I could, for the first time, manually adjust the scope without too much vibration and settling time was almost instant - a vast improvement on the other mounts. I did a quick comparison with the other scopes, which verified my initial impressions of the 102's better optics, but, more importantly, highlighted the tremendous difference that a decent mount makes to the viewing experience. Definitely money well spent.

If I get time, I'll have to play around with connecting a laptop & camera (tried afocal smartphone but it didn't pan out). Santa can still get me a 120 mm scope (or better) but, failing that, an equatorial motor drive would seem to be the logical next step.